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iH}t pr^aaur^ nf Asia 

and 
The Unification of the English-speaking People 



Address delivered at a dinner of the Canadian Club 

of New York at the Hotel Flanders, 

January 14, 1908 

by 

William M. Coleman 



THE LASKER PRESS 
92 Fulton Street, New York 






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TubKARY of O0M<a'fiESS.'i 
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.JAM 31 jyoa 

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Copyright, 1908 

BY 

William M. Coleman 



Mr. T^resident and members of the Canadian Club of New York •' 

It is a great pleasure to have the opportunity of addressing- 
you upon a topic so interesting and important as the relations 
between the two great branches of the English-speaking people. 

You have undoubtedly noticed that Mr. Hearst and his chain 
of newspapers, which are read b}- five million Americans daily, 
are openly advocating an alliance between the United States and 
Germany on the basis of a common animosity to England. 
Back of this newspaper agitation is the National German- 
American Alliance, which binds together for united action the 
German societies in this country representing over two millions 
of German-Americans. To these two elements must be added 
the powerful scholastic influence of Professor Burgess, described 
by the New York American as the ' ' Roosevelt exchange pro- 
fessor to Germany," who is delivering a series of addresses to 
German societies, in which he takes the position that the Anglo- 
Japanese alliance makes a counter-alliance between Germany 
and the United States a matter of necessity. The movement is 
represented upon the floors of Congress by representative 
Richard Bartholdt of Missouri, of International Peace Con- 
ference fame, who has apparentlj^ abandoned his fondly- 
cherished dream of peace for a policy which would lead straight 
to Armageddon. 

Whether these various elements will be of sufficient strength 
to induce the United States to abandon its historic opposition to 
entangling alliances it is not necessary for us to determine. It 
is sufficient for us to observe the evidence of a powerful 
organized movement which, availing of an assumed historical 
animosity in this country toward Great Britain, endeavors to 
throw the controlling weight of the United States into a com- 
bination against her. That such an alliance, if formed, would 
vastly accentuate the schism of the English-speaking people 
goes without saying, and it is therefore a matter as to which all 
Americans of British descent must be consulted. To the 



Canadians the question is of even greater importance. We are 
standing in one of those great moments of history in which the 
primacy of an old-established nation is being seriously 
challenged by younger rivals. If the ambition of Mr. Hearst, 
Professor Burgess and Mr. Bartholdt is realized, Canada may be 
placed between two mighty contesting forces and her people 
may readily become the principal actors in one of the great 
tragedies of history. 

I believe in the unity of the English-speaking people ; and 
my appeal to you to-night will be to use the great and growing 
influence of Canada to heal the breach between the British and 
American nations, to the end that the English-speaking people 
may once more stand before the world as a united and 
harmonious whole. 

The question whether there shall be a federation of all the 
English-speaking nations involves similar problems to those 
which are met in the projected federation of the British nations, 
and I shall ask your indulgence for a moment to consider the 
present situation of the British empire. 

The opening of the twentieth century finds that ancient 
empire in a situation strikingly like that which preceded the 
American Revolution. At that time Great Britain was contest- 
ing with France the primacy of the world, and the people of the 
British islands felt sorely the burden of that mighty conflict. 
They numbered less than ten millions, and as they looked across 
the Atlantic to the colonies upon this side with a population of 
two millions, increasing rapidly in numbers and wealth, they 
thought and thought justly that, as the colonies formed an 
important portion of a great empire, the«y should bear their 
proportion of the burdens. Unfortunately, however, the 
British statesmen attempted to impose the burdens of empire 
without sharing also its privileges. This error was the direct 
cause of the civil war which ended in dividing the English- 
speaking people. 

To-day, the struggle for world supremacy in which the 
mother country is engaged is chiefly economic ; but the 
enormous size of her armaments and the willingness with which 
Parliament votes colossal sums for further extensions, show that 



her statesmen do not consider the possibiHty of an armed struggle 
as remote. On the one hand, she witnesses the growth of rival 
nations in numbers, wealth and sea-power, and on the other, she 
regards with anxiety the enormous and constantly increasing 
burden which is imposed upon her people in the effort to main- 
tain that glorious supremacy which she has maintained since the 
close of the Napoleonic wars. In this situation, the eyes of her 
statesmen have again turned to the members of her family 
across the seas. During the last fifteen years, there has been 
much discussion of the perplexing problem how the co- 
operation of the great self-governing colonies in imperial affairs 
can be most advantageously obtained. 

Looking at the matter from the standpoint of an American, 
it would seem that the only possible method of treating the 
problem would be to establish a federal parliament in which the 
people of Great Britain, Canada and Australia would be repre- 
sented and which would have control over imperial affairs. 
This suggestion has been made by many prominent Englishmen, 
notably by I^ord Brassey. It has not, however, obtained any 
great amount of support in either Canada or Australia and the 
reason for this lack of support is important in our present 
investigation. If such a parliament were created, it would 
have the war power and necessarily .would have the power of 
taxation which the possession of the war power carries with it. 
The representatives from the British islands would outnumber 
the representatives from Canada and Australia in the ratio of 
about four to one, and therefore these two colonies would be in 
the position of giving to the British a practically unlimited 
power of taxation over them. There would, in fact, be little 
difference between giving the right of taxation to such an 
imperial body and giving it to the British parliament as at 
present constituted. 

Nor have the British statesmen been able to find any 
escape from this deadlock. The English cannot be expected to 
give to the Canadians and Australians representation in an 
imperial body unless they bear their share of imperial expenses, 
and there seems to be very little probability that either the 
Canadians or the Australians will ever consent to share that 



burden pro rata. Whether their position be or be not just, it 
is not for an American to say, as it is ahnost identical with that 
of the Americans of the pre-revolutionary period. The funda- 
mental difficulty, however, is simply a question of money. 

But if federation is impossible, what is the alterna- 
tive ? Apparently the alternative is nothing less than disinteg- 
ration. The tendency is clearly marked. Almost every year 
some strand which connects the mother country with Canada is 
cut. The power of Parliament to legislate for either Canada or 
Australia is a mere form. The red-coats have gone and the 
military defence of Canada is practically in the hands of its own 
people. Canadian and Australian navies seem to be a possibility 
of the near future. The treaty making power has been demanded 
by the Canadians and apparently is being gradually acquired. 
Canadian representatives have just completed tariff negotiations 
with the French government under an authorization from the 
Crown. A representative of Canada has recently been to Tokio 
to take up directly with the Japanese government the matter of 
Japanese immigration. Treaties of alliance with the mother 
country are being seriously proposed. Practical independence 
has already been acquired, and any untoward accident might 
add the form to the substance. 

Now, I suppose that, as I am an American, I am expected 
to view this result with complacency, if not with satisfaction. 
In each individual step, the Canadians are clearly right. Yet 
when one who is proud of the achievements of his race reflects 
upon the ultimate result, he is forced to ask himself whether 
the English-speaking people are not standing on the verge of a 
disruption similar to that of the Spanish-speaking people who 
once constituted one of the world's greatest empires, but at the 
present time, although they are represented on three continents, 
and number nearly fifty millions, are of inconsiderable import- 
ance. I certainly am not one to look upon such a result with 
equanimity, especially as the problem now confronting the 
English-speaking people admits of a natural and complete 
solution. 

Eet me point out that if, in addition to Great Britain, 
Canada and Australia, we include the United States in the 



scheme of federation, the fundamental difficulty in federating- 
the British nations entirely disappears. The wealth and popula- 
tion of the United States are so vast that its proportion of the 
debt burden and of the military expenses of the reunited nations 
would be assumed not only without effort but without notice, 
and after the United States and Great Britain had each assumed 
its proportion, the amount to be taken up by Canada and 
Australia would be trivial. Certainly it would not be more 
than a fair equivalent for the additional privileges and oppor- 
tunities conferred. Thus the mother country would be relieved 
of a large portion of its burden, which in right and justice be- 
long to the whole of the race and should not be imposed upon 
her alone. 

Can the United States be brought in ? Has the English- 
speaking people as a whole that sense of racial unity, that 
inward sense of a common interest and a common destiny which 
will impel them to overlook minor points of variance, to sink 
minor differences of opinion, in order that all the several parts 
may act as one ? 

If that question had been asked five years ago, it would 
have had to be answered in the negative. Prior to the Russo- 
Japanese war, the forces of disintegration in the English-speaking 
world had attained their maximum. But since that war the 
centrifugal forces have been combated bj^ a force centripetal in 
its nature, and that is the renewal of the ancient and eternal 
conflict between the European and the Asiatic. Since Charles 
Martel in the eighth century hammered the army of the Saracens 
and drove it southward into Spain; since Ghengis Khan and his 
Tartar- Mongol horde in the thirteenth century ravaged eastern 
Europe as far as the Volga, and in all western Europe, even in 
Britain, the people gave themselves to fasting and appealed to 
God as their only salvation from the scourge against which all 
human means seemed powerless; since Sobieski and his Poles in 
the seventeenth century hurled back across the Danube the ad- 
vancing Turkish host, men of European race have never been 
called upon until now to face the possibility of racial conflict 
with a highly organized and efficient Asiatic empire. The 
boundary between the white European and the yellow Asiatic 



seemed fixed. The Ottoman empire, which bore the brunt of 
the conflict, worn by the incessant warfare of the Crusades and 
temperamentally unfit to wield the mechanical devices of modern 
war, no longer inspired terror. After centuries of struggle, the 
races had apparently reached an equilibrium. Now, however, 
the European, having crossed the Atlantic and populated the 
seaboard of the North American continent, having swarmed over 
the Appalachians and up the St. lyawrence, across the 
fertile basins of the Mississippi, the Missouri and the Saskatche- 
wan, stands upon the loftiest pinnacles of the Rockies, and gaz- 
ing across that vast expanse M^hich stretches to the setting 
sun, contemplates wdth instinctive apprehension the seething 
multitudes of Asia. Time was when the European comforted 
himself with the idea that the yellow and brown men were 
inherently incapable of contending with the white man in battle ; 
but that idea has been forever dispelled by the Russo-Japanese 
war. Nor is the awakening of the Orient confined to the Japan- 
ese. The Chinese also have awakened from their sleep of 
centuries. The warlike races of India are asking themselves 
whether the continuance of the British raj is wholly a matter of 
destiny; and as we today face forty millions of Japs whose mili- 
tary prowess twenty-five years ago was despised, so twenty-five 
years from now our statesmen may be called upon to deal with 
four hundred million Chinamen who have been likewise trans- 
formed. Already the economic struggle becomes acute. When' 
the anti-Japanese riots first occurred in San Francisco, they were 
condemned, especially by the British press, as the acts of a tur- 
bulent mob inflamed by an unworthy race hatred. The subse- 
quent riots at Vancouver were explained in the same way; but 
the obvious danger to the British empire arising from racial 
difliculties not only in British Columbia where they exist in 
acute form but also in Australia and the South African colonies, 
has forced the critics to discard this superficial estimate and to 
accord to these riots their philosophical and historical importance. 
They are not merely the acts of a turbulent mob. They are the 
symptoms of racial contest, as yet a contest only economic in its 
nature, but which may at any moment necessitate a recourse to 
the arbitrament of arms. It is the obvious determination of the 



Americans, whether north or south of the line, whether justly 
or unjustl}^, to preserve the North American continent for the 
white man ; but we are forced to contemplate the time in the 
near future when their right to exclude the yellow and brown 
men from one of the most fertile portions of the earth's surface 
will be challenged by a united Asia. 

Such a result will not be wholly a misfortune. It is said 
by historians that the American Revolution would never have 
taken place if it had not been for the conquest of Canada by the 
British, the reason being that the fear of France would have 
kept the colonists loyal and made them seek redress of their 
grievances by peaceful means instead of by force of arms. If 
that be so, then the unity which was destroyed by removing the 
pressure of France may be restored by the pressure of Asia. 

I think there can be no difference of opinion as to the 
abstract question of reuniting the English-speaking people. Is 
the*e^'n fact, however, any practicable basis upon which such a 
reunion could be founded ? It is certainly a large problem ; 
but 'it could be readily solved by a further extension of the 
federal principle which has worked so successfully in the 
United States. As is well ]j;tiQwn;vfeach state in the Union is in 
theory sovereign withiii ils sphere* having entire control of its 
own local affairs, and the national government has jurisdiction 
only of those subjects which are national in their nature. If a 
similar plan were applied to a federation of all the English- 
speaking nations, a new imperial government could be created 
with Great Britain, the United States, Canada and Australia as 
states. The powers which would be given to the central 
government could be reduced to four : First, the war power, in- 
cluding the control of the army and navy ; second, the control 
of foreign relations ; third, jurisdiction over commerce with 
foreign nations and between the various grand divisions of the 
empire, and fourth, jurisdiction over dependencies such as 
India, the Philippines, Egypt, the South African colonies and 
all other possessions. With the exception of the enumerated 
powers, each of these nations would have entire control over its 
own local concerns. The United Kingdom would remain a 
monarchy with an established church. The United States 



8 

would remain a republic with no church establishment. Canada 
and Australia could adopt any form of local government they 
desired. There would be only one sine qua non, and that is, 
that the new government should be republican in form. 

So far as the Canadians are concerned, at present they have 
nothing to say about the war power or the government of 
dependencies and their participation in foreign affairs is 
limited to such matters as concern Canada. Under the pro- 
posed plan, they would have participation in all of these matters; 
and while it might be argued that the representation would be 
too small to' be of weight, it should be noticed that the popula- 
tion of Canada may be expected to grow very rapidly, and also 
that the position of each individual man and his opportunity for 
a great career would be identical with that of every other man 
in the empire. 

If such an empire were formed, the achievements 3f the 
Romans would be surpassed. There would be gathered under 
one flag moie than five hundred million peorli, or about one- 
thi d of the entire population of the globe. The territory would 
comprise over sixteen million square miles, or nearly one-third 
of the total land area. The federation would spread to the utter- 
most ends of the earth the civilization and the standards in 
which we believe. It would place the English-speaking empire 
for all time upon a plane higher than the mightiest empires of 
the ancient world. It would assure the triumph of law and the 
reign of peace for generations to come. Let us then cherish the 
hope that the two great English-speaking nations will bury the 
feud which has divided them for more than a century ; that they 
will recognize not only the advisability but the necessity for 
united action, and that in the near future, while many of us in 
this room are still young, the banners of a reunited nation may 
float from the towers of Westminster. 



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